THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



115 



fruit will depend on the clearing up shower, 

 whenever that may come. 



The water courses are perhaps lower than 

 ever known at this season of the year, many 

 saw-mills having ceased to work for lack of 

 water. 



Considerable damage has been done by fires 

 lately, in the destruction of houses, coal, wood, 

 &c, and more may be expected. Although it 

 may be advantageous at intervals to burn super- 

 abundant litter on rich land, yet the burning of 

 poor land is always injurious, and particularly 

 so in the spring of the year. 



Tobacco cannot be handled this weather, con- 

 sequently but little can be doing in the market, 

 and perhaps our manufacturers may need before 

 they get a supply. 



Wishing all prosperity to the State Agricul- 

 tural Society, 



I remain, Za. Drummond. 



Amherst, April 8, 1845. 



P. S. — I have examined this morning and so 

 far I discover no fruit is living. Nearly every 

 particle of foliage of every kind is killed. There 

 is no frost, for the weather is too dry, but the 

 destruction is produced by ice or freeze. 



Z. D. 



April 9. 



The drought has been, for the season, most 

 unprecedented, and the effects of that, combined 

 with the excessive cold, have told most inju- 

 riously upon every species of vegetation. There 

 will not be fifty peaches raised within fifty miles 

 of Richmond ; garden vegetables have been 

 universally replanted, and the early wheat has 

 been generally cut down by the frost in lower 

 Virginia. We have, however, seen a very old 

 gentleman who informs us that a similar cir- 

 cumstance occurred in 1783, and that the roots 

 of the wheat remaining strong and vigorous, 

 new shoots put forth with great alacrity, and 

 that the crop was neither later nor inferior to 

 what it would have been without the accident. 



The late wheat is very promising. 



For the Southern Planter. 

 CURRIE'S SCOTCH PLOUGH. 



Mr. Editor, — At the request of Mr. John 

 Currie, of Richmond, I take pleasure in giving 

 a brief statement of a plough recently invented 

 by himself, and taken from his recollection of 

 the best implements of this kind used in Scot- 

 land. I have one now in use on my farm, near 

 the city, and cannot say too much in praise of 

 it — for ease of draught, level and smoothly 

 turned furrows, together with great regularity 

 and sufficient depth, either in clay, turf or sandy 



soils, it greatly surpasses any plough I have 

 ever tried — so valuable and important and so 

 very essential do I consider a first rate plough 

 on a farm, that T do take pleasure in recom- 

 mending this to the agricultural community. — 

 A specimen can be seen at the office of Shields 

 & Somerville, Cary Street, No. 137. 

 Respectfully, yours, 



J. N. Shields. 

 Richard Crouch. 



We have been called on to examine the 

 plough alluded to above, and can testify to the 

 substantial manner in which it is gotten up. — 

 Mr. Currie is not only an excellent mechanic 

 but a good farmer, and we know few gentlemen 

 whose judgment we esteem more highly than 

 that of Mr. Shields. 



The plough, we think, is not calculated to 

 turn more than a nine inch furrow ; indeed we 

 believe that that is as much as two horses can 

 ever accomplish, to do the work in its greatest 

 perfection. These ploughs cannot be sold for 

 less than twelve dollars apiece. 



ADVANTAGE OF KEEPING MANURE 

 COVERED. 



An experiment, conducted by the President 

 of an Agricultural Society in England, shows 

 that manure which was kept covered by nine 

 inches in depth with earth, so that no evapora- 

 tion escaped, produced four bushels more of 

 grain per acre, than the same quantity and kind 

 of manure applied to the same extent and quan- 

 tity of land, but which had lain from the 13th 

 of January to the 4th of April exposed to the 

 weather. — Albany Cultivator. 



NEW BOOKS. 



From Messrs. Drinker & Morris we have re- 

 ceived a copy of the American edition of Stew- 

 art's Stable Economy. To Mr. A. B. Allen, 

 the American Editor, the public are much in- 

 debted for his additions to, and corrections of, this 

 standard work of Professor Stewart. 



We have many scientific ireatises upon the 

 diseases of the horse, which after all, are com- 

 paratively useless in the hands of the ordinary 

 practitioner, but in this work of Mr. Stewart, 

 we have practical directions for the treatment of 

 the healthy horse from his cradle, if we may 

 say so, to his grave. The most complete and 

 sensible directions are given for the construction 

 of stables, the manner of breaking, training, 

 grooming, feeding, driving, and in short, for 



